DEBTS 261
Interest shall not be payable on sums of money due by \vay of
dividend, interest or other periodical payments which themselves
represent interest on capital.
The rate of interest shall be 5 per cent, per annum except in cases
\vhere, by contract, law or custom, the creditor is entitled to payment
of interest at a different rate. In such cases the rate to which he is
entitled shall prevail.
Interest shall run from the date of commencement of hostilities
(or, if the sum of money to be recovered fell due during the war, from
the date at which it fell due) until the sum is credited to the Clearing
Office of the creditor.
Sums due by way of interest shall be treated as debts admitted by
the Clearing Offices and shall be credited to the Creditor Clearing Office
in the same way as such debts.
23.
Where by decision of the Clearing Offices or the Mixed Arbitral
Tribunal a claim is held not to fall within Article 296, the creditor shall
be at liberty to prosecute the claim before the Courts or to take such
other proceedings as may be open to him.
The presentation of a claim to the Clearing Office suspends the
operation of any period of prescription.
24.
The High Contracting Parties agree to regard the decisions of the
Mixed Arbitral Tribunal as final and conclusive., and to render them
binding upon their nationals.
25.
In any case where a Creditor Clearing Office declines to notify
a claim to the Debtor Clearing Office, or to take any step provided for
in this Annex, intended to make effective in whole or in part a request
of which it has received due notice, the enemy creditor shall be entitled
to receive from the Clearing Office a certificate setting out the amount
of the claim, and shall then be entitled to prosecute the claim before
the courts or to take such other proceedings as may be open to him.
SECTION IV
PROPERTY, RIGHTS AND INTERESTS
ARTICLE 297.
The question of private property, rights and interests in an
enemy country shall be settled according to the principles
laid down in this Section and to the provisions of the Annex
hereto.
(a) The exceptional war measures and measures of transfer
(defined in paragraph 3 of the Annex hereto) taken hy Germany
with respect to the property, rights and interests of